Post here if you don't feel that bad about your job.

Count me in the happy camp, too.

The problems with my job are mostly about compensation (benefits more than salary) and lack of visibility, which is more about ego than anything.

On the stuff that really matters: What I actually do and how I'm treated by the people with whom I work, I have virtually no complaints. They let me do what I want and they are happy with the way I do it. I cover a sport I love and I am in the office so rarely that I have never laid eyes on some of my co-workers. I get to travel to all the good stuff -- the stuff you want to say you covered -- but I don't have to make the tedious, routine trips.

And Dean Singleton hasn't bought my paper ... yet.

 

Quick question: Does the Red Smith quote offered by Mr. Kindred still ring true today? I ask, because it certainly seems like fans regard sports (and sports coverage) a whole lot differently today than they did in Red's time.

 

In spite of all the sham and drudgery of my job, I love too much about it for me to want to walk away from the profession.

 

My job's fine, my schedule's fine, my co-workers are fine.

Fine, fine, fine.

Nothing could be finer. Not even being in Carolina. In the morning.

 

in my mind i'm going to carolina.

 

Carolina in the Pines -- Michael Murphey Never mind.

 

Heads Carolina, tails California.

 

Nothing beats being in Carolina in the morning ... as long as I'm asleep.

 

i love what i do

no complaints

just sad that one of these days in the next decade or so we'll probably stop publishing after 100 years or so

 

I love my job. I love what I do. I work for a good paper, a cool sports editor and a rabid prep sports scene. I get paid pretty good and I look forward to work almost 90 percent of the time, the other 10 percent being wrestling or track meets. But hey, it beats most other jobs.

Didn't Kirby Puckett once say something about how he's happy if he has gas in his truck and a couple of dollars in his pocket? I would like to think I have the same kind of outlook on life.

What I don't like is seeing very good friends and/or colleagues being forced out or dumped by their respective newspapers. That brings a dark cloud over things pretty quick.

 

I think the quote holds up. It's just that "fun" is a bit different these days. Somewhere along the way, a lot of people forgot how to switch off their intensity, unplug from the competition of the daily grind and enjoy something without being passionate about it. For many people, activities to unwind are now competitions in themselves.

And that's what's happened to sports fandom, or at least the side we in the media see frequently. There are people who compete to watch the competitions better: You can't just be a fan. You have to be the best fan. You have to earn that spot in the stands and know every name on the roster and corresponding number. And once you see yourself in those terms, it falls only naturally that you see everyone else in  that light. That guy who's not standing and cheering right? Screw him. He loses. I win. That sportwriter who doesn't share my opinions and write them on a daily basis? He loses and knows nothing. I win.

Even that guy derives fun from reading the paper the next day -- even if it's just to judge the writer or the team.

But I'd bet there are just as many people who read a gamer in the way Smith was talking about. It's like a breakfast conversation with your friends after a crazy night. There's a certain intrigue in hearing another vantage point on something you experienced as well. There's a small rebirth of the excitement you felt at the time. And maybe they'll see something you didn't and make you look back on that night differently than when the conversation started.

[/sappy idealism]

 

I absolutely, positively love my job. A job that will take me to retirement comfortably.

Of course, I've moved from a quickly dying mid-size college-town newspaper to a mid-major metro. And I've also left sports for news.

No regrets on the later, either.

No more crabby coaches, pathetic parents and agate up the wazoo.

Gimme the DNC race, global politics and natural disasters, thank you.